Montgomery County stalker sentenced to jail, probation

A Montgomery County man was sentenced today for a relentless campaign of stalking that forced a Bensalem Township woman to move from her own home.

Common Pleas Judge Wallace H. Bateman Jr. sentenced Matthew John Bustin, 34, of King of Prussia, to nine to 23 months in county jail, and seven years of probation.

During the sentencing hearing on Thursday, Deputy District Attorney Brittney Kern presented a detailed timeline of Bustin’s actions, which included online searches of the victim before he ever contacted her on a dating site.

The timeline showed that Bustin had already been charged in a similar stalking case in Lehigh County when he began communicating with the victim. The victim had only talked to Bustin for six weeks before his disturbing behavior led to her filing a police report.

The victim read an impact statement, which painted a terrifying picture of her ordeal. She said she returned home from vacation on April 16, 2024, to a dark apartment with the electricity cut, internet disconnected, and her security camera turned to the wall. “I truly believed there was someone in my apartment with me,” she stated. She said she waited in her kitchen with a knife and called a friend for help. She described the “scariest part” as “knowing someone had been in my apartment… yet still not knowing who would do this.”